Will state budget ax fall on TOPS?

Thursday

Jan 24, 2013 at 7:12 PMJan 25, 2013 at 11:32 AM

Choosing which college to attend can be difficult.

Matthew AlbrightStaff Writer

Choosing which college to attend can be difficult.But, for Nicholls State University freshman Christy Badeaux, one thing made the choice a whole lot easier.“TOPS was a huge deal for me. It made my choice pretty obvious,” Badeaux said. Badeaux referred to the Taylor Opportunity Program for Students, the state’s scholarship that pays college tuition at a Louisiana university for in-state students who meet certain academic standards.With her test scores and grade point average, Badeaux could have gone elsewhere for her college degree. But, because TOPS would leave her free from student debt, she stayed close to home.There are thousands of students like Badeaux in Louisiana colleges — hundreds at Nicholls State alone. For that reason, many legislators consider TOPS one of the bright spots of the Louisiana state government.Polls also consistently show TOPS is one of the most popular programs in the state. A poll this year by LSU’s Public Policy Research Lab found that 75 percent of state residents opposed scaling back the scholarship. But TOPS is expensive — the state has spent about $1.5 billion on it so far, according to Board of Regents documents. And the cost to taxpayers continues to increase. Since its inception in 1999, the annual price tag has more than doubled.At a time when the state seems to face a bigger budget hole every year, that climbing cost has caused some policymakers to wonder — does TOPS need to change?

TOPS pays four years of college tuition for students who meet certain academic requirements. There are three basic levels to TOPS. The lowest, which pays most tuition and fees, requires a 2.5 GPA and a 20 on the ACT.The other two tiers dole out stipends to help pay for books and other expenses.Since the program started in 1998, 212,056 students have gone to school on TOPS, according to Board of Regents figures — an average of more than 15,000 students a year. The number of students qualifying for TOPS has increased steadily every year. Today, some universities have more students on TOPS than students who aren’t.More than half of last year students who attended Nicholls received TOPS .

If you ask a student on TOPS whether the program is working, the answer is almost always “yes.”“It definitely kept me here,” Badeaux said. “And I have plenty of friends who did the same thing. I think it’s awesome.”But legislators have to ask more difficult questions, given the huge and ever-growing cost. Is the scholarship keeping Louisiana’s kids in Louisiana?It appears so. In the graduating high school class of 1997, the year before the plan was implemented, 43 percent of graduating seniors enrolled at a Louisiana university. In the graduating class of 2011, 48 percent of seniors enrolled here, a recent Board of Regents study shows. The question of whether the program is holding onto “the best and brightest” is more difficult to answer. Experts say the scholarship isn’t likely to keep the handful of ultra-competitive students — those with perfect GPAs and perfect standardized test scores — because those students can get scholarships to top-flight Ivy League universities. But there is some evidence that high-performing students are staying in state because of the scholarship. Of the high school students with scores high enough to qualify, 89 percent took TOPS and stayed in state.Keeping TOPS-eligible students in-state is supposed to boost state schools’ graduation rates. There’s strong evidence the program is doing that — three of five TOPS recipients graduate in six years, while only one in four students without TOPS do the same.Finally, proponents say TOPS has caused high schools to ramp up their standards. Because TOPS requires students take a tougher class load, many schools have toughened students’ schedules to give as many kids as possible a chance at the scholarship. The year before TOPS started, 42 percent of students took college-level coursework, according to the Regents report. Last year, 90 percent took those courses.

But TOPS’ cost has exploded — its annual price tag has doubled since it started. And total program costs over the years is well more than the budget deficit the state faces this year.That’s partially because more students qualify for the award every year. But the larger problem is increasing tuition prices.As the state struggles with annual budget shortfalls, legislators have seen raising tuition at public colleges as a way to save state money while minimizing budget pain.Some university officials argue increasing tuition could price students out of higher education. But raising tuition also hurts the state — the higher tuition is, the more expensive TOPS gets.In 1999, the average TOPS award was $2,592. By 2012, the cost had grown by 54 percent, to $3,981.TOPS outgrew the pots of money legislators had originally set aside to pay for it. Today, the Legislature must shovel supplemental money into the program every year just to keep it afloat.That puts universities in something of a catch-22. TOPS infuses more students and money into the system but also contributes to the budget holes that have caused painful cuts over the past several years.“TOPS is out of control, and it’s directly hurting our universities,” said Rep. Joe Harrison, R-Napoleonville. “This just doesn’t make any sense to me.”

TOPS’ skyrocketing costs have led many legislators to propose various ways to curtail them. “TOPS is a good program because it helps the middle class and puts college in reach of people who couldn’t afford it,” Harrison said. “But we’ve cut everything in the whole state over the past few years except TOPS. That’s not right to me.”Harrison has authored bills in the past three years to rein in TOPS’ costs. Each year, he says, the program’s popularity and a formidable lobbying corps have shielded it.Harrison is authoring another bill this year to trim costs. And he hopes the state’s dire fiscal straits of facing yet another billion-dollar deficit might improve his chances.The proposal focuses on two main measures. Harrison’s bill would require students who lose TOPS to pay back the money they received. About 34 percent of TOPS students lose the scholarship at some point during their college careers, either because their grades slipped or they didn’t enroll to get enough credit hours.Harrison argues that’s not fair to taxpayers.“Our state is graciously giving these students a chance at a college education, and they’re not taking care of their business,” Harrison said. “We need to hold those students and their parents accountable.”As an added benefit, supporters of this change say students would have a strong incentive not to fall behind.Harrison’s bill would also cap the amount a student can get from TOPS. Though Harrison said he hasn’t settled on a definite amount the bill will set, last year’s bill placed the limit at full tuition at LSU, the most expensive public college in the state.That means students could have most or all of their tuition covered, but students at more expensive schools might miss out on some of the “extras.”Some policymakers have proposed increasing the academic requirements to get TOPS. Harrison said that makes sense to him, though he hasn’t included it in his bill.“We need to talk to our educational leaders in this state and see what the right level is,” Harrison said. “If we’re trying to keep the best and brightest, we need to make sure that’s what we’re doing. I’m not an education expert, so I can’t make that determination. But I think there needs to be that conversation with our universities about it.”Other lawmakers said the financial problems with TOPS aren’t the program’s fault but are a result of deeper issues. “I’m all for making some of these changes if we think it’s going to make TOPS better,” said Dee Richard, an unaffiliated representative from Thibodaux. “But TOPS isn’t the root problem. The state budget is.”Richard, who sits on the education committee, said the program wasn’t designed to accommodate several years of rapid tuition increases. He said the primary culprit is Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration, which has a policy of increasing tuition to make up for budget cuts.“This administration has increased tuition to balance the state’s budget on the backs of students and their families, and that’s not fair,” Richard said. “I will not vote again to raise tuition. I think we’ve had enough of that.”For her part, Badeaux said she hopes TOPS doesn’t change.“I know it’s probably expensive, but it’s worth it,” she said. “I know so many people who it’s helped.”

Staff Writer Matthew Albright can be reached at 448-7635 or at matthew.albright@dailycomet.com.

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